02 03 School's Out
by NewDrWhoFan
Summary: Some glimpses into the ending and aftermath of "School Reunion". 10Rose.


_There are so many excellent and mega-angsty takes on "School Reunion", exploring how Rose felt rebuffed by the Doctor, or how he tried to distance himself from her, and so on and so forth... well, this ain't one of 'em :)_

 _This is a sequel to my stories, beginning with " **02 00a Heart of the TARDIS** ". (If you have ideas for a "Tooth and Claw" story, I could use the prompts!)  
_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own_ Doctor Who _. Nor do I get anything from writing these stories - except wonderful, constructive reviews. Wink, wink; nudge, nudge ;)_

 _As yet un-beta'd._

* * *

Rose moved into Mickey's one-armed embrace, as they stood behind the crowd of celebrating, rescued school kids.

"Is that my car?" Sarah Jane Smith asked from behind them.

Rose frowned, realizing the vehicle "parked" inside the school's foyer did look suspiciously familiar.

Mickey went stiff, and awkwardly pulled away, turning to face Sarah Jane and the Doctor. "Uh, yeah. Sorry 'bout that. 'Fraid I owe you a car, now."

"You what?" Rose asked, and saw Sarah Jane's mouth drop in a mirror of her own surprise.

"Saved the world, I did," he defended. "Here!" Mickey told Sarah Jane, digging in his pocket. "You can have mine. 'S already 'Smith' on the title," he added with a hopeful smile.

Sarah Jane recovered, shaking her head. "Oh, I couldn't do that."

"Really, take it," Mickey insisted, separating the key from the ring and pressing it into her hand. "I've got loads of clunkers I'm fixin' up from the shop. It's yours. I mean," he looked over to Rose, "if I could get a lift back to my flat. I've just got a bag in the boot I can grab, first."

"Yeah, no problem," Rose told him, then looked to the Doctor for confirmation.

"Sure, we just need to move the TARDIS out of the school before the authorities arrive," he said, stepping away from Sarah Jane and towards the building.

Distant sirens told Rose they didn't have much time left for that.

Mickey gestured Sarah Jane towards the exit to the school's car park. "I'm just out on the street," he told her.

"Thank you," Sarah Jane told him, clasping the key in her hand. "I'll need to get a few things out of my car, first."

Rose smiled up at the Doctor as he stepped towards her, holding out his hand.

"We'll just hop the TARDIS over into the park down the road," he said, grinning as Rose intertwined their fingers.

Mickey nodded. "We'll see ya there."

* * *

The Doctor rechecked the connections on the cable, one end hooked into K-9 Mk IV, the other connected to the TARDIS' console. Rose sat on the grating beside K-9; the robotic dog's eyes lit up and blinking rapidly, indicating the ongoing download.

"I did say goodbye," he told Rose. "To Sarah Jane."

He jiggled the sonic screwdriver in its receptacle on the TARDIS console, watching as K-9's eye-blinking slowed to two, three steady pulses. The Doctor flipped a switch on the console. K-9's eyes stopped blinking, and the Doctor unhooked the cable from the newly rebuilt tin dog.

"It's just hard," he continued, glancing at his unnervingly silent companion before focusing on rewinding the cable. "When it's time, when I need to let someone go, when I have to make that choice... just because I don't bring them up in daily conversation, doesn't mean I've forgotten."

"I think I can imagine," Rose nodded from where she sat beside K-9, absently scratching between his ears.

The Doctor felt himself relax at her understanding tone. Still, he defended, "She only had K-9 at all 'cause I sent him to her after she left." The Doctor decided to test Sarah Jane's soon-to-be robot companion. "K-9, tell her."

K-9's eyes lit up again, now in time with his synthesized voice. "Master sent K-9 to Mistress with a message recorded in one-nine-seven-eight earth years; delivered in one-nine-eight-one earth years."

"Three years?" Rose asked, but not harshly.

Three years. Now, how had that happened?

"'Give Sarah Jane Smith my fondest love,'" K-9 continued. "'Tell her I shall remember her always.'"

That certainly had been the message, the Doctor recalled. "Memory successfully downloaded!" he told Rose with a grin, retrieving his sonic from the console.

"'Fondest love', is it?" Rose asked with a teasing grin of her own as the Doctor winced. "Musta been quite the 'assistant', after all."

"There you go, you humans and your languages," the Doctor responded. "Expecting one little word to cover everything from the deepest, most profound expression of a relationship to your favorite style chips. It's no wonder Shakespeare wrote so many sonnets."

If Rose could comprehend Gallifreyan, that would be a different, much less confusing matter...

"I'm sorry if she wanted more," the Doctor said. "I had to leave her so suddenly. I still am rubbish with human relationships," the Doctor admitted, choosing to ignore Rose's huff at his understatement. "I've had friends, assistants, companions." He sat beside Rose, patting K-9's back. "Not always humans, but they're usually the most fascinating," he told her with a gentle nudge of his shoulder; which Rose playfully returned. "But eventually they find something better out in the universe, or - well, you know it's not always safe... More often than not, I'm just trying to bring them home, and they wanna go home, but I'm just failing spectacularly."

"Twelve months off isn't a record for you, then?" she asked.

The Doctor let out a breath. "Not by a long shot, unfortunately."

"You could still..." Rose trailed off.

"What?" he asked, looking over at her.

"Bring 'er along, now?" she suggested, looking at him only briefly before focusing back on K-9. "I dunno, if ya wanted to make a start at not just' leavin' when it's convenient. Takin' a chance on a harder goodbye 'stead of keepin' things safe as possible."

Waiting until they're not _asking_ to go home any longer, the Doctor thought. Until they're torn away by enemies, or accidents... or time.

A knock on the TARDIS' doors prompted the Doctor to leap to his feet, checking the scanner. "Mister Mickey's back," he told Rose. "Wanna let him in while I take care of K-9?"

"Yeah, no problem," Rose answered, climbing to her feet. "An' she's gonna love 'im," Rose said, giving K-9 one more pat on the tin head. "Goin' away present or not."

* * *

Mickey tossed his duffel down on the bed of the spare TARDIS bedroom that Rose had found for him after they'd left Sarah Jane - and earth - behind.

"Feel free to look around," Rose told him from the doorway. "I'm gonna get changed; The TARDIS should help ya find me when I'm ready... or I'll find you."

"Yeah, alright," Mickey told her, as she made to leave.

Rose caught herself, turning back to warn him, "Just... don't touch anythin'. 'Til ya get the official tour."

Mickey shook his head, and held up his hands. "Look, no touch," he promised.

* * *

After peeking into various rooms - some were so huge, he didn't want to risk stepping inside and getting lost - and exploring the kitchen cupboards, Mickey felt somehow directed down a specific corridor. He heard the Doctor's voice from an open doorway, ahead.

"...Your boyfriend -" the Doctor said.

Rose's voice cut him off. "He's not my boyfriend!" Mickey stopped shy of the doorway and listened.

"How's that?"

"Mickey. He's not my boyfriend."

"Since when?"

"Well, I dunno, maybe when I left 'im to run off into a beautiful blue box an' see all o' time an' space?" Mickey wished, now, that he'd had the sense to let her go, back then. Or maybe even the fifth time he was questioned over her disappearance.

"Alright, so you never seemed very exclusive, I mean with Adam and, well..."

It was a good thing he and Rose had talked things through at Christmas. Still, Mickey didn't exactly want to hear a complete list of Rose's outer space love interests.

Thankfully, the Doctor cut it short. "But then you called him and went off with him -"

"A'right, since then. Since Cardiff; guess that's when it was sorta official." Kind of, sort of, pretty much...

"Sure was a _very_ 'friendly' goodbye kiss after Christmas..."

"Yeah, friendly, 's all. Hang on, you were on the TARDIS ahead of me. Were you -"

"Official you were saying?" Did Rose honestly think the Doctor actually paid attention to anything else when she was around - or, at least when she was around anyone close to competition?

"We're just mates."

"You're just mates."

"'S what I said. That why ya invited 'im? Thinkin' he's my boyfriend?"

"He invited himself."

"Coulda said 'no'. You were lookin' right at me, ya saw me say 'no'."

Mickey felt her words like a punch to the gut. Of course he'd realized her reluctance when he'd asked, but to know Rose hadn't even considered giving him a chance...

"Why'd ya say 'yes'? For Sarah Jane?"

"No, well, for Mickey. Turned him down the last time - after _you_ invited him. Like you said then, we'd pretty much've been dead without him."

He had to give the Doctor props for still not betraying Mickey's own past reluctance. It sure seemed like he'd never told Rose how Mickey had turned down the old him's first offer to come along.

"Besides, you're still 'mates'; why'd you say 'no'? With all the trouble I get you into, you could use someone to look after you."

"Maybe I like the trouble I get into with you."

"...Yeah?"

"Maybe..." Mickey could clearly picture the look on Rose's face with that tone of voice, and took a few, quiet steps back. The conversation was quickly devolving from "argument" into "sweet and flirty". He loudly approached the doorway, making his presence clearly known.

"Mickety McMickey!" the Doctor greeted, as Mickey stepped into what had to be the library. Or, at least _a_ library. How many might there be on the ship?

The Doctor and Rose were seated together on a sofa, hands clasped between them.

"Newcomer's pick, whaddya say, Rose?" The Doctor asked her, before turning back to Mickey. "Past or future?"

Past is as dead as a doornail, thought Mickey, watching Rose's hand fall away from the Doctor's as the man bounded to his feet. "Future. Definitely future," Mickey answered.

* * *

 _The end._

 _That's it, just a few glimpses for you :) To be continued in " **02 04 The Girl in the Stalking Spaceship** ".  
_

 _The more often picked-apart lines ("No, not to you", etc.) I've dealt with in future stories in this series, so I decided to focus on a couple of different aspects, here._

 _(With Sarah Jane's "please, this time, say it", "School Reunion" gave the impression that the Doctor had tricked her out of the TARDIS and vanished. In actuality, he said both "bye" and "'til we meet again, Sarah". In_ K-9 and Company _, Sarah Jane received both K-9 and the above message from the Doctor. And her contacts at UNIT shouldn't have left her in the dark. I'm not certain at what point she was supposed to begin to think he had "died"; I think the writers were sweeping continuity under the rug in order to make their emotional point.)_

 _To date, I think my favorite "School Reinion" story is **Jessa L'Rynn** 's " **A Handful of Sand (With Kisses)** "..._


End file.
